Chinese Hold Protest Leader, Land Activist – Edward Cody

Chen Weiying, a peasant protest leader in southern China whose struggle was the subject of a Washington Post articlelast month, was detained by police and has been in custody since Dec. 1, a peasant rights group reported Friday.

Chen, 43, who has two daughters, was formally charged sometime after her arrest with involvement in an illegal lottery, according to Hou Wenzhuo, director of the Empowerment and Rights Institute. Hou and others from her group advised Chen and fellow farmers during their long battle against land confiscations at Sanshan, a small but swiftly developing community on an island in the Zhu River on the outskirts of the city of Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province.